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. 2021 May;40(5):295-304.
doi: 10.1037/hea0001070.

Stress and psychological adjustment in caregivers of children with cancer

Kyrill Gurtovenko  1 , Kaitlyn M Fladeboe  1 , Liana R Galtieri  1 , Kevin King  1 , Debra Friedman  2 , Bruce Compas  1 , David Breiger  3 , Liliana Lengua  1 , Madelaine Keim  1 , Joy Kawamura  4 , Lynn Fainsilber Katz  1
Affiliations

Stress and psychological adjustment in caregivers of children with cancer

Kyrill Gurtovenko et al. Health Psychol. 2021 May.

Abstract

Objective: To examine effects of stress on caregiver psychological adjustment during the first year of pediatric cancer.

Method: Caregivers (N = 159) of children with cancer completed monthly questionnaires assessing domains of caregiver psychological adjustment (depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms) and stress (general life stress, treatment-related stress, caregiver perceptions of treatment intensity and life threat). Effects of stress were assessed at two levels to examine whether within-person changes in stress predicted concurrent changes in caregiver adjustment and whether average stress was associated with between-person differences in caregiver adjustment trajectories.

Results: Overall, higher levels of stress factors were associated with poorer caregiver adjustment at both the between- and within-person levels, with high average levels of treatment-related stress and general life stress emerging as leading predictors of worse adjustment.

Conclusions: Both types of stressors, those directly related as well as unrelated to a child's cancer, contribute uniquely to caregiver distress. Caregiver distress is impacted by both overall levels of stress over time as well as month-to-month changes in stress. Implications for informing care for at-risk caregivers are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Between and Within Person Effects of General Life Stress with Caregiver Adjustment Outcomes
Note. Figures represent general life stress effects estimates derived from final cumulative models controlling for the effects of other stressors (see Table 2); Figures 1b, 1d, and 1f show a model based estimate of how adjustment outcomes are predicted to deviate from their average trajectory as a function of fluctuations in general life stress. Although these effects are modeled at time 3 above, such fluctuations could occur at any month during the first year post-diagnosis; Within person effect for general life stress & PTSS above is not statistically significant.
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